For as much that’s changed in the woodworking business over the past 141 years, a few things have remained the same.

Rothan Millwork Co. has been handed down through six generations and four George Rothans since its creation in 1873, founded on the corner of West Johnson and South Webster streets, where it remains today in South Peoria.

“He started this business, not in the building you’re standing in, but the one on the corner,” former president George J. Rothan said of his namesake and great-great-grandfather. “The hardware store was across the street.”

From the days when the business’s lights and gears were powered by horse power — as in horses walking a circle to turn an axel and water wheel — to the conversion to steam power and eventually to electricity, Rothan Millwork Co. has changed with the times.

The Rothan family’s fingerprints are ingrained in woodwork throughout many of the city’s homes and some of its most prominent businesses.

Bradley University, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center and the Pere Marquette Hotel — though not its most recent renovation — are among Rothan’s clients.

The company did all the original woodwork in City Hall before the turn of the 20th century for $18,000, equivalent to about $500,000 today. The current remodeling, for which the company has again been enlisted, will be for a much more modest $80,000 by comparison.

The business started when George J. Rothan, the son of German immigrants, moved to Peoria from Cincinnati and began making windows for local homes, though his fine craftsmanship and business savvy quickly elevated the company to work in high-end homes and customized liquor cabinets during the days Peoria thrived as a whiskey city.

“As business progressed he started making ornate bars and bar backs and things for the distilleries around here,” Rothan said.

After Prohibition, the woodworking company’s founder shifted his sights from liquor cabinets to restaurant fixtures and other residential work.

During World War II, the company took up constructing hog troughs to feed the livestock that in turn fed the troops as its contribution to the war effort.

After that government demand dwindled, Rothan Millwork Co., under the leadership of George H. Rothan went a different direction.

“We took the business from home business and remodeling to commercial work,” Rothan said.

Today commercial jobs make up 95 percent of the business’ workload, counting locker rooms at Illinois State University and the University of Missouri among its recent projects as well as multiple orders for customized display cases for Maui Jim used from Peoria to Hawaii.

The company has remained viable through the better part of two centuries by both adapting to new technology and remaining true to its standard of local craftsmanship, each generation marking its own milestones.

“We went out and bought a calculator for $200 and we thought we were in hog heaven,” Rothan, who ran the company from 1974 to 2012, recalls. “Now just about everybody who works for us in the office has two computer screens, and we have computer operated machinery.”

Today brothers George “J.J.” and Chris run the company as president and vice president, respectively.

The days of the handshake-style business practices of their father are gone, replaced by contractual paperwork and automated systems controlling multiple machines.

They won’t outpace mass manufacturers, they know, so instead they’ve created a niche providing the customized and hard-to-find.

“Woodworking in general is one of those things you can automate a lot, but you’ve still got that old world craftsmanship that requires a lot of manpower,” Chris Rothan said. “It’s finding a way to leverage that and move forward, especially in a global marketplace where you have countries like India and China that turn out products at an unbelievable price.”

“We have probably still the best carpenters around because a lot of them have worked with us for a long time,” J.J. Rothan said. “We’re not a box store. Those box stores are fully automated. They don’t have the skilled laborers we have.”

They survive today by providing the products that customers can’t find anywhere else.

“Something that they can’t find at a Lowe’s or Menard’s,” J.J. Rothan said. “They come in with pictures or ideas, or they come in with a clipping out of Better Homes and Gardens and say duplicate this.

“That’s where the fun comes in.”

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1873 — George J. Rothan, the son of German immigrants, moves to Peoria from Cincinnati and begins a woodwork business.

1924 — George J. Rothan’s obituary recalls him as a “pioneer lumber dealer” and one of the most prominent businessmen in Peoria.

1943 — During World War II, Rothan makes wooden hog troughs to feed the pigs that fed American troops.

1987 — Rothan Millwork Co. purchases its first computer.

1989 — The company buys its first fax machine. “I had to beg dad to buy it because it was probably $400 or $500,” said current president George “J.J.” Rothan of his father, former president George J. Rothan, both named for the family business founder.